OTTAWA — Guards at the Gatineau, Que., jail want tighter security after a small drone — potentially dropping off drugs to inmates — flew over the walls Sunday.

Jail guards spotted the unmanned flyer whizzing over the facility just after 11 a.m. Guards then began a frantic search for any packages the drone might have dropped.

"This sort of thing happens often in prisons all across Quebec," said Stephane Lemaire, president of Quebec's correctional officers' union.

"Usually the drones are carrying small packages of drugs or other illicit substances."

Guards searched the grounds and tried to find where the drone landed.

"The problem is, the drone can be controlled from more than a kilometre away, and the prison is surrounded by forest," Lemaire said.

He said it's frustrating that drone drops keep happening across the province, and he wants the government to boost security at the prison.

"We've been pressuring (the public safety ministry ) to bolster our security for years," he said. "Our clientele never stops trying to find solutions and ways to get illicit products into our walls. Drugs are very attractive to them."

He said officers don't have the right guns to take out drones — especially near city centres — and a net or even a jammer that would disrupt the drone's signal would go a long way.

Now that drones are relatively cheap to buy, they've become the best way to smuggle drugs inside, Lemaire said.

"We're first and foremost rehabilitation agents," he said. "But we can't rehabilitate without first getting rid of the drug problem."